knowledge, autonomy, reputation, status and respect. Here self-fulfillment or self- actualization is the highest level in the hierarchy; these are the individual‘s needs
for realizing his or her own potential, for continued self-development and creativity in its broadest sense.
B. Psychological Approach
A judgment will not be accepted if there is no base. There must be certain criteria standard in evaluating literary works. According to Rohrberger and
Woods 1971, there is no one will accept anybody‘s statement of evaluative judgment unless he understands and accepts the standards upon which that
judgment is based p.3. Based on the statement, it can be concluded that evaluating of literary works should be based on the standard evaluation.
Furthermore, a critical approach to literature necessitates an understanding of its nature, function, and positive values. One must know what literature is, how to
read it, and how to judge it p.3. According to Rohrberger and Woods, there are five approaches that can be
used for evaluating literary works. They are the formalist approach, the biographical approach, the sociocultural-historical approach, the mythopoeic
approach, and the psychological approach. The five approaches described all have their values and limitations. Every approach has its proper insights to give and not
all approaches are good to be used in all literary criticisms. In order to analyze a particular literary work, especially about human
psyche, the author chooses to use psychological approach. The approach in this
study will be applied to analyze the psychological traits of Laura Wingfield in Tennessee Williams‘ The Glass Menagerie.
There are some psychological criticisms and each of them draws on a different body of knowledge. But the modern psychological movement received
its greatest impetus from Freud p.13. According to Freud as cited in Weiner 1980, there are three components or parts of personality: the id, the ego, and
super-ego.
1. The Id
The id is conceived by Freud to be the first system within the person. It is most intimately related to the biological inheritance of sexual and aggressive
drives. The individual is unaware of the existence of many of these inborn drive states.
The id is the reservoir of all psychological energy. The availability of this energy allows the id to be directly responsive to bodily needs. Internal bodily
tension cannot be tolerated by the id, which functions to discharge it immediately. Thus, the id operates according to the pleasure principle, or the doctrine of
hedonism. Immediate pleasure is sought, and this is accomplished through homeostatic processes and tension reduction pp.14-15. It means that the id is the
basic instinct that a human has to fulfill and it only knows how to fulfill its desire without considering the realistic.
2. The Ego
The ego is governed by the ―reality principle‖ rather than the pleasure principle. However it does not mean that hedonism is given up. The ego serves the
id in its pursuit of pleasure and tension reduction, taking into account the demands of reality. The
ego follows the rules of ―secondary process‖ thought. This is adult thinking characterized by logic, time orientation, and a distinction between reality
and unreality. The ego also has the tools of memory and attention and the control of motor activity. Thus, its existence provides a means for delay of gratification,
long-term goal planning, and so on pp. 15-16. It means that the ego uses a realistic principle to fulfill the desire of id and manage the balance between the
desire and the reality. It is done as adult thinking that has some consideration.
3. The Superego
According to Freud, the last of the three structures to develop is the super- ego. The super-ego has two main functions, both based on built-in reinforcement
processes. The first one is used to reward individuals for acceptable moral behavior and the second one is used to punish actions that are not socially
sanctioned by creating guilt. The super ego thus represents the internalization of moral codes and is often called one‘s ―conscience.‖ The super-ego opposes the
expression of unacceptable impulses rather than merely postponing them as does the ego p.16. It means that the superego has an expectation in perfection and it
represents the internalization of moral codes.
